Ireland

IRELAND. - Officially called, from the Gaelic, Eire.

I. GEOGRAPHY

In area (82,500 sq. km.; more than three times Sicily), I. is the third island of Europe and the second of the British archipelago.

The extreme western outpost of the continent (from Valencia the submarine cables to America depart), it consists of a broad plateau of ancient rocks, roughly quadrangular, depressed in the center and bordered to the NE and SW by two belts of reliefs that are also ancient, intensely worn down by normal erosion and by Pleistocene glaciation (they do not reach 1,200 m. at any point). The climate is characterized by mild temperatures, slight thermal range, constant humidity (rain throughout the year) and cloudiness. The central plain, largely limestone, is soaked with water, which stagnates in lakes and marshes, favoring the formation of peat over wide expanses. A little less than half of the territorial surface is occupied by natural meadows and pastures, which support considerable livestock raising (especially cattle); agriculture, like industry (mineral resources are lacking) and even maritime activity, is thus of slight importance. The country is therefore relatively sparsely populated (2,900,000 inhabitants; 43 per sq. km.), with heavy emigration (in a century the population has more than halved). Only the capital, Dublin (510,000 inhabitants), exceeds 100,000 inhabitants; on the whole the population lives scattered in the countryside. The Irish are 93% Catholic, and the rest Protestant. From 1921 I. was part of the British Commonwealth, except for the northern part (13,600 sq. km., 1,300,000 inhabitants with capital Belfast), which enjoyed and enjoys its own autonomy. From Apr. 1949 the ties that bound it to England have been abolished and I. is a sovereign and independent republic.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY

I. PRE-CHRISTIAN ERA

I. was originally inhabited by a people of short stature and dark hair, called by palethnologists Iberian or Ligurian or Mediterranean, who populated all of Western Europe during the Neolithic era and who left as a document of their presence in I., especially in the counties of west Kerry and Sligo, megalithic constructions (dolmens and cromlechs). The Celts (v.) who in I. are called Scoti or Scotti, Gaels, and who even today constitute the ethnic base of the country, of Aryan-European stock, tall and blond, bearers of the Bronze Age civilization, penetrated into I. in the

7th century B.C., driving the dark race back toward the west. They lived under a tribal regime, which considered itself the owner of the territory, grouped under a chief, in villages, within wooden houses enclosed by a palisade.

The tribes were distributed into five great provinces: Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, Desmond (northern Munster) Thomond (southern Munster) subject to a provincial king (righ), and all recognized the more nominal than effective authority of a supreme king (ard righ) who resided on the Hill of Tara in the county of Meath, to the northwest of Dublin, the center of the pagan tradition which Christianity, established on the hill by St. Patrick, found itself facing against the druidic priesthood of King Loegaire.

The juridical-social life of I. was governed by a traditional legislation called the "Law of the Brehons" (= jurisconsults) and also the "Law of Nature," which Christianity later replaced with the "Law of the Letter" (Senchus Mor). Every three years an interprovincial festival (fais) took place at Tara in which the unity of the race was affirmed against tribal particularism.

Fantasy has greatly embellished the historical origins of the country, of which the Irish had no precise memory.

There are three cycles in which the mythical and heroic poetry of I. is contained: the mythological cycle, the Ulster cycle and the Leinster cycle, or the Fenian cycle, whose last representative is Ossian. According to the mythological cycle, three generations of gods occupied the island: the first led by Partholon who fought against a host of dark and infernal gods, perhaps a memory of that venerated by the "Mediterranean" inhabitants; the second led by Nemed who fought against the dark power of the Fomorians and disappears without descendants; the third of the Tuntha Dé Danann, "divine descendants of Dana," the host of luminous gods that occupies the country until the arrival of the Milesians, sons of the mythical ancestor Mile, that is, the Irish Celts, who drive out the gods, reducing them to the state of elves and fairies (side). The Milesians would have, according to traditional chronology, arrived in I. in 1300 B.C. and 118 kings of their stock would have reigned in the country before the arrival of St. Patrick (43 A.D.).

The divinities worshiped by the pagan Irish were Dana, the ancestress of the gods; Bilé, corresponding to the Dis Pater of the continental Celts, who forms with Dana the Irish divine generative pair; Lir, sea god; Lug, luminous god, physician and artist; Ogma, god of eloquence;

Angus, goddess of love; Brigit, goddess of poetry and wisdom. A priesthood of druids (v.), learned in medicine and divination, controlled the education of the young.

II. CHRISTIAN IRELAND

The introduction of Christianity into the country, although Pope Celestine had in 431 sent Palladius to Ireland as bishop, is due entirely to St. Patrick (v.), who in 432 from his native Wales landed at Downpatrick (County Down); there in 1938, in memory of the saving landing, a gigantic statue of the Saint was erected.

The spread of Christianity was very rapid, also because, given the social constitution of the country, based on the clan, the conversion of the chief brought with it that of all his people. And since the lack of large cities, an effect of the tribal regime, prevented the constitution of a hierarchy tied to a delimited territory and dependent on a cathedral church, there arose a hierarchy of abbot-bishops, who around the monastery founded at their own expense gathered a numerous host of monks who, within the protecting walls, after having completed the long and characterstic devotional practices (assiduous prayer with daily recitation of the entire Psalter, daily prostrations repeated even three hundred times, with repeated signs of the Cross, with baths in freezing water, with prayers recited standing with arms outstretched in that position called crosfigill, "vigil or prayer of the Cross", which is still practiced in the pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory at the sanctuary of Lough Derg) dedicated their time to transcribing and illuminating codices, to working in chisel creating compositions in which the exuberant imagination often ran wild at the expense of grace and harmony.

The names of the principal monasteries of the country are known: Kilkenny, on the island of Aran, founded by St. Enda; Clonard, founded around 520 by St. Finnian; Moville, founded by another St. Finnian around 540; Ossory, founded in 549 by St. Ciaran; Clonmacnoise, founded by another St. Ciaran in 544; Iona, on the island of the same name off the Scottish coast, founded in 563 by St. Columcille or Columba (v.), to whom the Irish monasteries of Derry and Durrow are also owed; Glendalough, founded in 541 by St. Kevin; Clonfert in 544 by St. Brendan; Bangor, in 558 by Comgall, and where St. Columban (v.) and St. Gall were formed. The 6th and 7th centuries were the golden centuries of Irish Christian and cultural formation.

III. IRISH EXPANSION

These monasteries, besides having been centers radiating light for the whole of I., were also the starting points of a missionary expansion in Europe that constitutes the glory of Christian I. during the early Middle Ages and earned it the title of "insula sanctorum." This expansion took place especially in the 8th and 9th centuries. "Consuetudo peregrinandi jam poene in naturam conversa," states Walafrid Strabo of the Irish missionaries (MGH, Poet. lat. nov. Carol., II, 30), above all because this wandering was undertaken, as one reads in the lives of these industrious missionaries, "pro Dei amore," "pro Christo," "pro remedio animae," "pro adipiscenda in coelis patria," out of a desire, in short, to immolate themselves, in fulfillment of their own vocation, and in imitation of the Apostles of Christ, with the goal of attaining eternal salvation.

England was the first of the regions where the Irish apostolate unfolded. St. Aidan (mid-7th century), first bishop of Lindisfarne, was the apostle of Northumbria, an important center of Christian irradiation in the Anglo-Saxon country: St. Cuthbert, bishop and apostle of Durham (mid-7th century); St. Fursey, apostle of eastern England; St. Kentigern, first bishop of Glasgow in Scotland.

After England, France and Germany saw these missionaries arrive in their lands, clothed in coarse wool with a white tunic worn over it, tonsured crosswise from one ear to the other in the manner of the druids (except for a semicorona on the forehead) and with long hair falling behind the nape of the neck; they proceeded on foot, in groups, often of twelve in imitation of the Apostles, armed with a staff, with a flask for water at their side and a satchel with provisions and the necessities for writing.

For France the central place of expansion was Luxeuil, along with the other two of Fontaines and Annegrai, founded by St. Columbanus. Charlemagne made great use of the Irish element for the religious and cultural reform of his Empire. For Germany the monastery of St. Gall, a disciple of Columbanus, constituted the nucleus of the present-day Swiss city of that name, and from it swarmed forth the founders of the various Irish monasteries in Germany. Mention should be made here of St. Kilian, who evangelized Franconia and Thuringia and founded the church of Würzburg, where he suffered martyrdom in 680; the monks Tuban and Altus, who founded the monasteries of Honau (Strasbourg) and Altomünster (Freising); Virgil, abbot of Aghaboe, who became bishop of Salzburg; St. Colman, apostle of southern Austria; St. Fridolin, first bishop of Alsace; Marianus Scotus, founder at Regensburg of a monastery from which twelve others swarmed forth.

The Irish diaspora also reached Italy with beneficial effects. Already in the mid-6th century St. Ursus is remembered, in the Aosta Valley; St. Frediano, bishop of Lucca; in the 7th century St. Columbanus (v.), the founder of Bobbio (v.); St. Cataldus of Lismore, bishop of Taranto, onto whose coast he had been cast by a storm on his return from Jerusalem; in the 9th century St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, a contemporary of the learned Irishman Dungal, appointed by King Lothair to the University of Pavia.

The Irish monastic diaspora carried with it, given the particular form of hierarchy tied to the tribal constitution and not to a territory centered on a cathedral church, an excessive number of prelates, true "episcopi vagantes" who claimed to exercise episcopal powers even in the dioceses of the continent, provoking disturbances to which various local councils sought to remedy.

Furthermore, the Irish Church followed special liturgical customs that differed from those of continental Europe. The most discordant was that concerning the celebration of Easter, still fixed by the Irish according to the old computation that placed the spring equinox on March 25 and made the day of Easter oscillate between the 14th and 20th day of the moon, that is, between March 25 and April 21, whereas the Church of Rome, accepting the calculation of Dionysius Exiguus based on the Alexandrian cycle of 19 years, in order to avoid coincidence with the Jewish Passover, whenever the 14th day of the moon fell on a Sunday, had established the spring equinox on March 21, the celebration of Easter on the following Sunday between the 15th and 21st day of the moon, that is, between March 22 and April 25. The second point of discordance was on the form of the tonsure of the Irish, performed crosswise in the manner described above and not entirely according to Roman use. The third point, used more by the Celts of Britain than by the Irish, was that of having episcopal consecration performed by a single bishop rather than by three.

I. lived peacefully within its inviolate borders until the Danish invasion (792-1014), which occurred first along the coasts, Limerick, Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Wexford, and then penetrated inland, damaging churches and monasteries until the supreme king Brian Boru on April 23, 1014 put an end to Danish predominance, though he himself was killed in the battle of Clontarf.

But this victory, which was also obtained against Irish elements allied with the Danes, did not quiet the internal disputes that lasted until Dermot, king of Leinster, in conflict with the supreme king Roderic O'Connor, asked for help from Henry II, king of England, of the House of Tudor, who first sent Welsh and English troops into I. (1169) and then went there himself (1171), establishing himself in Dublin.

From this time begins the transformation of I. according to the economic-social and hierarchical system of the West.

Already from 1118 Gilbert, bishop of Limerick and pontifical legate, in the Synod gathered at Rath Breasail had established two metropolitan sees, one in the north, at Armagh, which was the ancient primatial see of I., with 12 suffragan sees, and the other in the south, at Cashel, with an equal number of dependent sees.

The measures of this Synod were championed by St. Malachy, primate of I., friend of St. Bernard and supporter of a reform of the church of I. in the Roman sense. In the Synod held at Kells in 1152, under the presidency of Card. G. Paparone, legate of Eugene III, four metropolitan provinces were established, Armagh, with the title of primatial, Cashel, Dublin, withdrawn from the dependence of the English archbishop of Canterbury, Tuam, under which the suffragan episcopal sees were grouped: this arrangement is still the present one.

IV. THE ENGLISH IN IRELAND

Henry II, who had landed in I. with the authorization of Pope Adrian IV, an Englishman, who charged him (bull Laudabiliter, 1155) with setting the ecclesiastical affairs in order and extirpating vices from the field of the Lord, in a new Council assembled at Cashel (1172) completed in disciplinary matters (election of bishops, episcopal mensa, tithes to the clergy, Peter's pence) the work of the preceding councils, under the presidency of the pontifical legate Christian O'Conairche.

But as soon as the King had departed, who had left in the Pale, a trench fortified from Dublin to Dundalk, of exclusively English dominion, a representative of his, the two hostile groups of the Irish and the Anglo-Normans immediately formed in the country and thus there followed ca. three hundred years of more or less open hostility which grew sharper during the "Wars of the Roses" between the two houses of York and Lancaster, because the Irish supported the Yorkists against the Lancastrian King Henry VII Tudor, who ascended the throne in 1485. The latter, in order to put an end to the eternal dissensions of the island, sent to I. Sir Eduard Poynings, who issued two laws (Poynings Acts, 1494) by virtue of which the laws voted by the Irish Parliament had no value without the sanction of the King of England, while the laws issued in England were to have value also for I.

The Tudors (Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth) set out to create the unity of I., lowering the power of the native chiefs and centralizing law and administration, against the autonomy proper to tribal tradition.

Henry VIII began by calling himself king rather than Lord of I., introduced Protestantism into the country by appointing Anglican bishops who constituted the Established Church at the expense of the expelled Catholic bishops and the confiscated convents. His son Edward struck the same path; his daughter Mary, a Catholic, partly remedied the damages suffered by the Church, but inaugurated the system of plantations, consisting in giving possession of the soil to English cultivators, stripping the legitimate users of it, which meant extirpating from I. the tribal system and the traditional law of the Brehons that regulated it. The other daughter Elizabeth inexorably maintained the system of social despoliation and confirmed the anti-Catholic measures of her father, but had to face three rebellions, one in the north, the other in the south and the third, again in the north and more terrible, led by Hugh O'Neill Earl of Tyrone in Ulster, who defeated the English at Yellow Ford, thus stirring up the anti-English revolt throughout the island and having himself proclaimed supreme king of I. But, despite the aid of Spain, Hugh was defeated at Kinsale and had to renounce the title and any further anti-English action.

When the Stuarts (James I, Charles I, Charles II, James II) succeeded the Tudors on the English throne, the hopes of the Irish rose again, but they were soon disappointed because James I intensified the system of plantations mainly in Ulster, seat of the last rebellion, introducing there English and Scottish planters, intransigent Presbyterians, stirring up in Connaught a most fierce insurrection (1641) led by Rory O'More, which extended to almost the whole island and was directed by a supreme council of six members chosen by the Assembly of the clergy gathered at Kilkenny in 1642.

But once again the internal contrast, arisen now between "the old Irish" partisans of intransigence assolute and the "Anglo-Irish," descendants of the first invaders and favorable to a compromise with the English crown, prevented a peaceful solution, even after about seven years of government by the Irish Confederation, and despite the fact that King Charles I, locked in struggle with the Parliament of London, had guaranteed religious freedom in exchange for an Irish army to be sent to England.

To resolve the question by force, Oliver Cromwell landed in I. after the King's execution (1649); after exterminating the Irish at Drogheda and Wexford and storming Kilkenny and Clonmel, he returned to England, leaving his lieutenants the task of subduing the country. The conquest was completed in 1652; the conquered territories were distributed to Cromwell's soldiers (Act of Settlement, 1653), and the Irish, left without land, were confined to Connaught.

Under Charles II conditions improved somewhat, because he took care to settle the various planters, distinguishing the families of the old Anglo-Normans, the planters of Elizabeth and Charles I, and the Cromwellian planters (Act of Settlement, 1663). His successor James II, in order to regain the lost English throne (1688), being Catholic and hostile to Parliament, relied on the France of Louis XIV and on I.

V. IRELAND UNDER THE PENAL LAWS

Then his son-in-law William III of Orange landed on the island with an army and defeated the royal army on the river Boyne (30 June 1690). The consequence of the defeat was, for Ireland, a new plantation of Orangemen who went to occupy the place of the outlawed Jacobites, and a period of clear Protestant predominance, with the enforcement of the "penal laws" and with the complete disappearance of the tribal regime by virtue of the final expropriation and of the Act of Resumption (1700) that followed it, according to which all lands confiscated or granted in Ireland after 1689 were to return to the State, which resold them at public auction; while the wool industry was uprooted from the country to the advantage of England, without the introduction of the linen industry compensating for it, and of that only the Orangist Ulster took advantage.

The suppression of the tribal regime, by removing the cause of internal disputes, facilitated the rise of the idea of the union of the Irish, made equal in their status as Catholics (except for the Orangemen of Ulster), against the English and Protestant ruler. At the same time the ideas of tolerance proper to the 18th century, which is the century of the Enlightenment, brought about on the part of the English a relaxation of the penal laws. To the Protestant Henry Grattan was due the proposal made to the English Parliament to equalize the rights of Catholics with those of Protestants. The war of independence of the English colonies in America, which brought about the formation of an Irish army of 42,000 volunteers, later grown to 100,000, helped to make less heavy the harsh hand of the English; while a national insurrection (1798), soon put down, stirred up on the island by the French Revolution, persuaded the English prime minister Pitt to proclaim (1800) the union into a single kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a single Parliament residing in London.

VI. THE UNION OF IRELAND WITH GREAT BRITAIN

The union, opposed by the Irish Protestants, who saw in it a diminution of their privileged position, did not displease the Catholics, because they considered it a means of facilitating their emancipation, bringing them out of isolation and making it possible for them to make their voice heard in the English Parliament.

The 19th century is in fact the one in which the solid foundations of Ireland's independence were laid. But the road to travel was still long and rough, inasmuch as: 1) the Protestant Church still had a privileged position, not only of honor but also economic, because of the tithes that the population was obliged to pay to it; 2) the territory was for the most part in the hands of English landowners (landlords) unwilling to accept any change in the regime from which they benefited to the detriment of the whole country.

So that, immediately after the union, the struggle for emancipation began, led by D. O'Connell (v.), who, by organizing the peasants, obtained from Parliament the approval of the Emancipation Act (1829), by which Catholics and Protestants were made equal in rights.

The terrible famine that followed in Ireland in 1848, as a result of the poor harvest, causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people and the emigration to America of more than a million and a half, owing to the government's lack of foresight, persuaded the liberal government presided over by Gladstone to abolish (1870) the privileges of the Protestant Church, to call into question agrarian reform and to raise the possibility of granting Ireland the right to self-government (Home rule). This movement, begun by S. Butt, warmly supported by the Irish patriot C. S. Parnell, fell twice (1886 and 1893) because of the opposition of the conservatives and would have fallen a third time as well (when it was presented by the deputy Redmond, because of the opposition of the Protestants of Ulster, who feared their privileged position was compromised and threatened civil war) had the First World War (1914-18) not broken out, in which Ireland ranged itself alongside England, temporarily settling the grounds for conflict. These were kept ideally alive by the political Association of the Sinn Feiners, "those who act for themselves," created by A. Griffith; it took part in the insurrection that broke out in 1916, in agreement with Germany and bloodily repressed by England; it triumphed in the elections of 1918 and established itself firmly with the formation of an Irish republican army (Irish Republican Army). In 1919 the Sinn Feiners constituted themselves as the "Assembly of Ireland" (Dail Eireann) and proclaimed the country's independence under the presidency of E. De Valera.

VII. INDEPENDENT IRELAND

The English prime minister Lloyd George eventually negotiated with them, recognizing (Dec. 6, 1921) for Ireland the status of a dominion, with the obligation of an oath of fidelity to the king of England and the payment of an annual fee as compensation to the English landlords for the lands restored to Ireland. Ireland received the title of Free State (Irish Free State, Sāorsiat Eireann), comprising the 26 Catholic counties of the center and south, while the 6 Protestant counties of Ulster remained united with England. The Irish extremists did not approve this settlement, and a struggle followed in which A. Griffith and M. Collins were killed, and W. Cosgrave succeeded them. Order was restored in 1923, but a consequence of the dispute was the rise of a new party called Fianna Fail, "soldiers of destiny," founded by De Valera, whose program was to modify the Constitution of 1921 on two points: to abolish the oath of fidelity to the king of England and the annual sum to be paid to the English landlords.

The new Constitution, approved by Parliament and confirmed by a popular plebiscite, came into force on Dec. 29, 1937. With it Ireland achieved the goal of its independence as a sovereign State, so much so that it was able to declare its neutrality, in the face of England, at the outbreak of the Second World War (Sept. 2, 1939). But to make independence complete, the annexation of the six counties of Ulster is still lacking from the territorial and political point of view. In the elections of 1948, in place of E. De Valera, Thomas O'Kelley rose to office as President of the Irish Republic.

VIII. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION

The Church of I. has 4 ecclesiastical provinces, comprising 4 metropolitan sees and 23 suffragan dioceses (Ann. Pont., 1931)

Metropolitan sees: 1) ARMAGH with 8 suffragans: Ardagh (united with the title of Clonmacnoise); Clogher; Derry; Down and Connor (united sees); Dromore; Kilmore; Meath; Raphoe; 2) CASHEL with 8 suffragans: Cloyne; Cork; Emly (under the perpetual administration of Cashel); Kerry and Aghadoe (united sees); Killaloe; Limerick; Ross; Waterford and Lismore (united sees); 3) DUBLIN with 3 suffragans: Ferns; Kildare and Leighlin (united sees); Ossory; 4) TUAM with 6 suffragans: Achonry; Clonfert; Elphin; Galway and Kilmacduagh (united sees); Kilfenora (under the perpetual administration of Galway); Killala.

III. LEGAL STATUS OF THE CHURCH AND SCHOOL SYSTEM.

The establishment of the Free State did not bring immediate changes to the condition of the Church. While, however, on the one hand the reform of legislation on ecclesiastical matters was entrusted to Parliament, on the other hand the courts (operating according to the English system) from that moment applied the legislation in force in a sense favorable to the Church.

The Constitution of 1937, although, still in conformity with the principles of English law, it did not abolish the previous legislation, nonetheless produced, in its application, the result of granting the Church a position of favor and of regulating according to the Church's own doctrine the most important matters. One may indeed affirm that the legal regime in force in I. in ecclesiastical matters is similar to that existing in England before the "Reformation." This system does not, however, apply in the northern counties, which, although according to the Constitution they form part of the national territory of Ireland, are in fact separate and have their own representatives in the British Parliament; in these counties the application of English legislation tends to be distinctly unfavorable to the Church, albeit tempered by the practice of the courts.

Art. 44 of the Constitution expressly affirms that the homage of public worship is due to God, while it recognizes the special position of the Catholic Church as the guardian of the faith professed by the great majority of citizens. The Church as such is not, however, granted juridical personality, which could be obtained through a resolution of Parliament, but which the Church itself, at least up to this moment, has not deemed it necessary to request.

No limitation of rights exists for those who do not profess the Catholic religion.

Diplomatic relations are maintained through the apostolic nuncio in Dublin and the ambassador of Ireland accredited to the Holy See.

As regards marriage, this is considered a contract producing civil effects. Every minister of worship is at the same time a public official with respect to the celebration of marriage. Divorce is prohibited, and Parliament could not even enact a law aimed at introducing it. Anyone, even a foreigner, who has obtained the dissolution of marriage abroad in accordance with the civil laws cannot contract marriage in Ireland during the lifetime of the first spouse.

Art. 42 thus establishes the directives of school education: 1) the State recognizes that the first natural educator of the child is the family and guarantees respect for the inviolable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious, moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.

2) Parents are given full freedom to have their children educated at home, or in private schools or in schools recognized or created by the State. 3) The State, taking into account the conscience and the legitimate preference of parents, does not oblige them to send their children to state schools, but nevertheless, as guardian of the public welfare, requires that children, according to their social conditions, receive a minimum of moral, intellectual and social education. 4) The State provides free primary education and seeks to assist, with adequate subsidies, private and corporate initiative of an educational character and, when the public requires it, provides other educational facilities and institutions, while always keeping in mind the rights that belong to parents, especially in matters of religious and moral formation. 5) Only in exceptional cases will the State, as guardian of the public good, take the place of the parents themselves if they, for moral and physical reasons, fail in their duty toward their children. The State will always have regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of children.

The Irish people arrived at these results through a struggle that began in 1612 with the founding of the Royal Free Schools, followed by the Penal Laws decree which proscribed Catholic education in Ireland. The clandestine Hedge Schools were then founded, legalized by the Relief Act in 1797. Catholic emancipation of 1829 favored private Catholic schooling. When in 1831 the Protestants founded the national school, Catholics strove to obtain equality, which was granted to them in 1860. In 1869, with the Irish Church Act, the Anglican Church was denationalized and the founding of the first national seminary for the formation of the Catholic clergy was permitted. In 1883 colleges run by Catholics were permitted, and from 1900 they had obtained the right to choose their own teachers, and in 1921-22 the "Christian Brothers Schools" were recognized by the State.

School education comprises elementary schools, secondary schools and universities. The elementary schools comprise 4,912 state schools and 466 Catholic elementary schools. The secondary schools are divided into 300 middle schools, 77 technical schools and 1,168 technical continuation schools. The universities are: Trinity College, founded in 1591 in Dublin, stronghold of Anglicanism; Queens University, founded in 1845 in Belfast, stronghold of the Presbyterians; Catholic University in Dublin, founded in 1850, and National University of Ireland, composed of three colleges: Dublin, Cork and Galway, founded in 1909 (non-denominational, but in which all the professors and students are Catholic).

The education of the Catholic clergy is provided in 21 seminary-colleges, in 3 complete seminaries, in 5 major seminaries and in the 3 seminaries abroad: "Collegium Hibernicum de Urbe" in Rome, "Collegium Parisiense" in Paris and "Collegium Salmaticense" in Spain.

Miroslav Stumpf

IV. LITERATURE

The oldest written literary manifestations of Ireland were in the Latin language. The Confessio of St. Patrick and his letter to Coroticus date back to the middle of the 5th century; the biography of St. Columba by Adamnan is from the end of the 7th century, and there are many other Hiberno-Latin writings in prose and poetry, produced from the 6th to the 9th century. They must be mentioned here as a reminder of the pure Latin and of the ecclesiastical influence rivaling the ancient native Irish tradition, whose hereditary guardians were the fili: a class of men of letters who transmitted, first by oral tradition, then in literary form, ancient laws, annals, genealogies, dindsenchas (topographies), heroic tales and other Irish poems.

With the rise of the Irish monasteries in the 6th-7th centuries it was inevitable that the old oral and mnemonic tradition should give way to the new form of written literature. The monks applied themselves to disentangling the tangled threads of legend, annals and chronicle with the scheme of universal history dominant in the Latin Church. The oldest literature of Ireland dates back to the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 8th; but it is the heir of an older oral tradition.

To the evolution of written (Gaelic) Irish literature a conventional division into three periods has been given: Old Irish (700-1100); Middle (1100-1550); Modern (1550 to the present day).

I. EARLY PERIOD

The oldest examples of primitive Irish prose are fragments of a homily known as the Homily of Cambrai (7th-8th centuries); the Messule of Stowe (8th-9th century) and some commentaries in the Book of Armagh (9th century). From the 10th century onward ecclesiastical literature tends to be written in Irish rather than in Latin. The Vita tripartita of St. Patrick is the masterpiece of the prose of this period; but there are also numerous Irish homilies, Rules, lives of saints, etc. The Irish hymns are found in the Liber hymnorum: among the most beautiful are the hymn to St. Brigid, the hymn to the Holy Spirit by Mael-Isu and the hymn of St. Ita to the Child Jesus.

Besides these literary texts, our knowledge of the ancient Irish language proceeds in part from the glosses and the short Irish poems written by scribes in certain manuscripts such as the "Codex Paulinus" at Würzburg, the "Codex Ambrosianus" at Milan, some manuscripts of Priscian at St. Gall and a manuscript in the monastery of St. Paul in Carinthia. These Irish books were preserved on the continent, where they were brought by Irish monks and scholars fleeing the raids of the Scandinavians in the 9th and 10th centuries. Most of this ancient Irish material is found in the Thesaurus palaeohibernicus (2 vols., ed. W. Stokes and J. Strachan, Oxford 1901-1903).

I. INTERMEDIATE PERIOD

It begins with the defeat of the Scandinavians by Brian Boru at the battle of Clontarf (1014). From the 12th century onward, especially after the Anglo-Norman conquest of part of the island, I. came into closer contact with the culture of Western Europe. This period is marked by the appearance of the schools of the bards: schools of poets under the protection of local chieftains; the bards correspond to the "fili" of the more ancient era. Numerous collections of Irish literature from the middle period have been preserved in the form of large manuscript volumes, compiled both by monks and by scholars from families that cultivated a tradition of learning. The oldest of these books is the Lebor nah-Uidhre ("Book of the Dun Cow"), which was written for the most part by Mael-muire Mac Ceileachair (1100) in the monastery of Clonmacnoise. It contains a collection of romantic tales taken from the great Ulster cycle of the Irish saga. The Lebor Laigneach ("Book of Leinster") was written in 1150 and contains another version of the Ulster cycle with new material from Leinster. A great quantity of romantic material is in the Yellow Book of Lecan and in the Book of Ballymote, written in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Leabhar Breac (15th century) contains much ecclesiastical matter. These five codices are preserved in Dublin and have been published in facsimile. In general the language is the Irish of the middle period, but there are many archaic forms deriving from older manuscripts, now lost.

There are two principal cycles of Irish romantic tales: the Ulster cycle and the Fenian or Ossianic cycle.

a) The Ulster cycle is the oldest. The central tale is the Táin Bó Cuailnge ("Cattle Raid of Cooley"): a picturesque and barbaric story of struggle between the forces of Connacht and Ulster, with the victorious hero of Ulster, Cúchulainn, as the principal figure. The Táin is a narrative prose, alternating with summarizing poems. The dialogue of the narrative is very well handled and the individual characters are vigorously delineated. The elements of a national epic and drama are here very numerous; but this copious material never found its expression in literary form, probably because of the irregular course of Irish history. Many secondary tales are grouped around the central one of the Táin. One of these, The tragic death of the sons of Usnech, captured the popular imagination more than the others, and still survives in the memory of the people. There are other minor stories, such as The sack of the hostel of Dá Derga, and a series of stories describing certain visits of mortals to the Land of Prophecy: The voyage of Bran, The voyage of Maelduin, etc.

b) The Fenian cycle links up with the characteristics of a later epoch, and is composed in the form of a ballad. There is more humanity, good and evil, in its main character, Finn Mac Cumhaill, and his companions. There is also a greater awareness of the delight given by the beauty of nature and the danger of the hunt. Many of the Fenian tales still live in the provinces of modern I. where Gaelic is spoken. The oldest version of these Fenian legends is in the Colloquy of the Ancients, preserved in the Book of Lismore (15th cent.). Later ballads can be found in the Duanaire Finn (compilation of the beginning of the 17th cent.). Prose romances on the Fenian theme appeared in the 16th and 17th cents.: The instruction of Diarmuid and Gráinne, etc.

The first prose tale is Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib ("Wars of the Gaels and the foreigners"), written immediately after the battle of Clontarf (1014). Other prose works are Caithréim Cellacháin Caill and Leabhar Gabhála ("The Book of invasions") which brings together many legends of ancient Irish history. Annalistic literature is more abundant than historical narrative. The oldest annalistic compilation comes from the southern province of Munster: the Annals of Inisfallen (1090). Later compilations are the Annals of Tigernach (14th cent.); the Annals of Ulster (1490); the Annals of Loch Cé (1588) and the Annals of the four masters (1632-36). This last compilation is the work of a group of Irish Franciscan scholars, who copied all the oldest material they could find in their annals, written at the Franciscan monastery of Donegal.

The most important collection of genealogies was gathered at Galway, with ancient material, by Duald Mac Firbis (1650-66). There is also found there a great quantity of manuscript material by professional scholars of this period of topography, history, genealogy, grammar, metrics and law. Only a small part of the Irish legal system, known as the Brehon laws, has already been studied. There are also Irish translations from the middle period of classical stories of Greece and Rome. Religious writings are well represented in this period. Numerous lives of Irish saints are contained in the Leabhar Breac and in the Book of Lismore. A great quantity of texts deals with visits to Paradise and Hell. Of these the most famous are The vision of Adamnan (11th cent.), The vision of Fursa and The vision of Tundal (12th cent.). Dante is said to have been influenced by the Vision of Fursa. The vision of Mac Conglinne differs from these texts: it is an intelligent satire of the Irish monks of the 12th cent. The love poetry of this period shows the influence of the amour courtois of the European tradition. The best part of these love poems has been collected by T. F. O' Rahilly in Dánta Grádha (Dublin 1916).

III. MODERN PERIOD

The 17th century saw the progressive increase of English power and culture in I., and a corresponding decline of the old Gaelic tradition. Through lack of patrons the bardic school decayed, and the poets rejected the old classical metres in favour of the simpler verse of popular speech. David O' Bruadar, Pierce Ferriter and Egan O' Rahilly are the most important poets of the 17th century. A school of religious prose arose in the Irish colleges on the continent, especially in the Irish Franciscan convent of St. Anthony at Louvain, where the first printed Irish books were produced.

The first biography, in order of date and of some pretension, in modern Irish, is the Life of Colmcille by Manus O' Donnel, written in 1536. Tadhg Ó Cánain

(d. 1608) wrote the Flight of the Earls, an account of the tragic story of the two leaders of Ulster, O' Neill (who died in Rome) and O' Donnell, after their defeat in the battle of Kinsale (1601). Geoffrey Keating (1570-1646) is the greatest writer of historical tales and the principal exponent of modern Irish prose. He was a priest and was excommunicated when he wrote a Foras Feasa ar Éirinn ("History of I."), as well as a certain number of fine poems and two religious works: a Defence of the Mass and a moral treatise on the Three Shafts of Death.

In the 18th century Gaelic literature consists above all of popular songs and religious poems, many of which are artistically of the first order. The two most notable poems are The Songs of Ossian, by Michael Comyn, and the Midnight Court, a satirical poem, by Brian Marriman. But the ancient literary tradition begins to decline.

In the middle of the 19th century an interest in Gaelic literature manifested itself once again. Scholars of comparative philology began to occupy themselves with the ancient Irish linguistic forms, and many of the oldest Irish manuscripts were printed for the first time. This was followed, towards the end of the century, by a movement to revive the spoken language, which was rapidly disappearing throughout the country. The Gaelic League was founded in 1893. Its first president was Douglas Hyde, later first president of I. His collaborator was Eoin Mac Neill, later professor of ancient Irish history at the National University of I., one of the most learned Irishmen of his time. Vast has been the literary production since 1893, in which there also figure modern editions of ancient Irish tales and translations of modern literary works from the other European countries. The Irish Folklore Institute has the purpose of preserving the oral tradition of the Gaelic-speaking centres. A school of Anglo-Irish writers has also arisen, with the intention of translating the ancient Gaelic literary heritage for English readers.

It is too soon to say whether the attempt to revive Gaelic as a universally spoken language in I. will succeed. It is freely spoken by the Gaelic-speaking groups of the north-western, western and south-eastern coasts. The teaching of Irish is followed in all the schools of the country, and it is today (1950) far from being a dead language. Never, since the 17th century, has there been a general interest in the Irish language and literature such as is manifested today in I. Several great English writers (J. Swift, O. Goldsmith, E. Burke, S. Butler, O. Wilde, W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge, J. Joyce, B. Shaw, etc.) were born or lived in I.; without going deeply here into particular aspects of their work, one notes that certain traits of their character and of their art, perhaps in the first place a particular form of irony and a taste for paradox, reveal the Irish soul.

Francesco Shaw

V. LITURGY AND ART

For the Celtic liturgy v.: CELTI, IV. Liturgia. For Celtic art up to the 12th century, v.: CELTI, V. Arte. Celtic or Irish artistic production from the end of the 12th century to the 18th century is of slight importance. In this long period the numerous Gothic churches are almost all simple and unadorned. With the 18th century, however, the Irish genius once again found itself, above all in the field of secular architecture, and in Dublin and throughout the country there was an extraordinarily large series of houses resembling, yet at the same time different from, English ones. The houses also had fine stucco decorations, and the minor arts flourished alongside architecture; worthy of note is the production of furniture and especially of mirrors. During the 18th century religious architecture also flourished in I., but the churches were simpler than the houses, and the religious art of that period has only a local importance. Subsequently much was built, especially sot-
IRELAND. - View of Cobh (Queenstown), County Cork.

under the protection of the Catholic Church, but there is little that can be distinguished for international importance, except perhaps some of the more recent stained-glass windows. - See plates XIII-XIV. Davide Talbot Rice